Tips and Motivation for your Inside Trainer Training

This week's post brought to you by our Swiss Miss Patricia Schwager
Wintertime equals trainer time. Maybe you are lucky and the weather where you live is good enough to ride outside, or your work hours are flexible and you can train in the daylight- of course, most of us prefer to ride and train outside. I’ve had some team mates and athletes who actually really like to train on the trainer, but to be honest; I can count them on 1 hand.

Here are a few tips on how to make it more durable if you are stuck to train inside on your trainer.

-Make sure you have a structured program for your training session on the trainer. Have your training time broken down into several parts like warm-up, intervals, cadence work, recovery time, cool-down and more. Time will fly and before you think about it, you finished your trainer session. It’s easier to focus on the different parts of your training session and much harder to just watch your total training time go by.

-If you have to do a longer workout, then break it down into 2 trainings. It’s easier to ride your trainer 1 hour in the AM and 1.5 h in the PM than 2.5 hours in a row.

-Don’t ride your trainer every day. Make sure you have some variety in your training program. Especially in the winter time, you can and also should add some cross training, such as gym sessions or other endurance sports into your training program. For example: you start the week off with a training day on the trainer, the next day you are doing some cross training or head to the Gym for a strength session and then the 3rd day you are back on the trainer for another workout.

-If you have to ride your trainer a lot- do your specific training/ intervals on the trainer and substitute some of your endurance training with another endurance sport like running, swimming, cross country skiing, MTB….

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpxfL_cj7ZU[/embed]

-Have some company! How about to meet up with your training friends for an indoor trainer session? This way it feels the same as meeting your friends somewhere to head out for a training ride. Riding together is more motivating, you can push each other to complete your training or maybe even ride a little longer.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkqwtO8a0t8[/embed]

-Have some music or TV to entertain you while you ride your trainer. Personally, I prefer to listen to music when I ride my trainer- always!

-Don’t forget: yes sometimes it is really hard to find the motivation to complete your training on the trainer. But always remember: it will pay off next season!

-Here at ALP Cycles Coaching, we have dozens of inside trainer workouts to keep you motivated and strong during the winter.